Parents should be able to pay surrogates to carry their child

THE NT is the only Australian jurisdiction with no surrogacy laws at all. That means while it’s not legal for someone in the Territory to carry a baby for someone else — it’s not illegal either, explains LAUREN ROBERTS

The Territory needs to do all it can to attract families to the NT — and keep them here. PICTURE: ISTOCK

THE NT is the only Australian jurisdiction with no surrogacy laws at all.

That means while it’s not legal for someone in the Territory to carry a baby for someone else — it’s not illegal either.

This murky, legally grey area is leaving Territorians desperate to have a baby simply waiting on politicians to file official paperwork before they can add to their family.

That’s all likely to change soon.

Over the last eight days, the NT Health Department has travelled across the Territory, asking people of they care about surrogacy — and what kind of laws they’d like to see.

It’s the first step in a long process which will hopefully see the NT introduce its own surrogacy legislation. Finally. We need these laws — and intending parents should also be able to pay surrogates for taking time off work and putting their bodies through a pregnancy.

Earlier this year, I met a mum, Georgina Schmidt, who said she’d be first in line when the NT introduced the legislation.

Doctors don’t know why Georgina’s body goes into early labour, and she’s already lost two children.

She can’t face the heartbreak of burying another child.

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No parent should have to face that pain. Luckily, Georgina and her husband Jason have a family member willing to carry a child for them.

And if they lived in any other Australian state of territory — they’d have a baby on the way. But unless the NT introduces these laws soon, it may be too late for the Schmidt family to have another child.

Because without surrogacy laws, there’s nothing this family can do — legally.

While other Australian states and Territorians do have the legislation in place, you have to be living in that state or territory to access treatment.

Which means picking up your entire family and moving for the whole pregnancy, plus at least a year beforehand to go through mandatory counselling and applications.

Realistically, if you’re gone for two years — how many people will be willing to move back to the NT?

If the Territory wants to be an attractive place for young families, we should be doing everything we can to keep them here.

That includes having surrogacy options.

According to Surrogacy Australia president Sam Everingham, while its pretty common to see Territorians moving interstate to get treatment — it’s more common to see families travel overseas.

In Australia, surrogates cannot profit financially from helping a couple have a child but countries like Ukraine place no limit on what a surrogate can earn — and the money from childless couples can be life-changing in the poor country.

In fact, a fifth of all Australian surrogate babies are now born in the Ukraine. One family travelled from Darwin to Georgia in 2017 to have a baby after becoming frustrated by how slow and complicated the surrogacy process was in Australia.

They said the red tape in Australia was suffocating, and although it cost them at least $70,000 to have a child overseas they have no regrets.

When the NT introduces surrogacy laws, it should make it legal for parents to pay women to act as their surrogates. It doesn’t have to be millions but it does have to be enough to compensate them for loss of income and the emotional journey.

To carry a child for someone else women have to take time off work: time for medical appointments, for treatment and to recover from the birth itself.

Unless you’ve saved up all your annual leave — and who wants to use their annual leave on hospital visits? — most people simply cannot afford to be a surrogate.

When the NT makes surrogacy legal in the Territory, they have a chance to get things right. Let’s hope they do.